“There was something that kind of irked me about the title,” says Jane Schmidt, librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto. “As a librarian, my gut reaction to that was, ‘You know what else is a free library? A regular library.’”

“If art is defined by human emotions, what might happen once external algorithms are able to understand and manipulate human emotions better than Shakespeare, Picasso or Lennon? After all, emotions are not some mystical phenomenon — they are a biochemical process. Hence, given enough biometric data and enough computing power, it might be possible to hack love, hate, boredom and joy.”

“Receiving it [in 2013] at the age I received it – I definitely felt that I didn’t deserve it. And that became a distraction from the work – I was thinking about so many of my mentors and idols who don’t have that award and asking, ‘Why do I have this and they didn’t have it?’ I allowed that to play a part in the work I was trying to make. And that’s tricky.”

“I think we’re hitting a point, particularly with the younger generations, where they feel the need to reclaim a level of informality. Of course, that means going through an interesting transition period, because there are still those brought up in the old ritualized style now clashing with those who want a very different experience.”

“The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, launched in January 2016 with an endowment of $20 million from philanthropist Gerry Lenfest, announced today it has raised $26.5 million in additional gifts from a variety of sources. Impressed by the response, Lenfest says he’s ponying up another $40 million, an amount that will have to be matched.”

“Jordan (Tead) Vaughn, 34, made a reputation for himself in Detroit’s street art scene over the past 20 years. The Trenton-reared artist was known for being able to seamlessly blend various styles to create an approach that was pulled from the early days of graffiti yet uniquely his own.”

What does it mean when a culture expresses its aspirations and ideals through a longing for a lost past, the past even of another country? Of course, every society has some version of its own past, and many of these are idealized pictures. Fantasizing about a simpler, happier world is a common enough reaction to rapid social change.

According to the findings, only 59% of people with an Asian background said they had engaged in the arts in the last year compared to 78% from the white and 70% from the black ethnic groups. Over the past 10 years, there has also been a “significant” decline – of seven percentage points – of the proportion of Asian people engaging in the arts.

“It wasn’t clear what was fueling the selling. Some tied the declines to the launch of Hulu’s live package, which could put pressure on ratings and traditional pay-TV subscription. Another negative was Time Warner reporting that its Turner unit’s ad sales fell 2%, possibly signaling a weak ad market and a slower than expected upfront. Last week, Comcast’s NBCUniversal said ad sales at its cable networks were also down in the first quarter.”

“There have been lawsuits, charges of slander, death threats, hoaxes, and thefts. A Modigliani specialist has been convicted of falsely attributing works to Modigliani. A skyrocketing market for works by the artist has been plagued by fakes in Russia, Serbia, and Italy (where Modigliani was born). Perhaps appropriately for one of the world’s most faked artists, there have even been fake fakes. Experts, meanwhile, are jockeying to be recognized as the ultimate authority on what should and should not be accepted as authentic.”

By all accounts except the federal government’s, Ruben Van Kempen is a pillar of the community. For 37 years he taught theater in Seattle Public Schools, growing Roosevelt High’s drama program into one of the best in the country.

“Over the last decade, ESPN built perhaps the most profitable business in media, and the future of its business will likely exist somewhere beneath that superlative. But as long as Americans enjoy sports—and as long as individual sports leagues see a financial benefit in selling access to an entertainment company rather than selling straight to consumers—there is every reason to expect ESPN will continue to be an extremely valuable network.”

It is hard to imagine how some of Acconci’s work, which addresses consent as both a theme and a medium, would be received as new work by museum audiences today. (Notwithstanding Acconci’s successful retrospective at MoMA P.S.1 in 2016, his place in the canon by then long established.) Recent examples of socially transgressive artworks suggest that the answer may be: not so well.

“There were stained futons that you wouldn’t even let your college freshman sit on,” said Amy Astley, the glossy mag’s editor-in-chief and a ballet fan. A donor took care of construction costs, and Astley convinced the designer and all the furnishings suppliers to donate the rest. Here’s the story, with before-and-after pics.

The Art Newspaper‘s Ben Luke argues that limiting the prize to artists under 50 was a crucial element in the Turner Prize’s success in drawing wide attention to emerging talent (the stated reason for the award’s existence), and that eliminating that limit will make jurors’ jobs much more difficult.

Bernard Labadie, founder of the Quebec City-based chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy. He takes over from Pablo Heras-Casado at the podium of New York’s leading freelance orchestra in 2018. Michael Cooper talks to Labadie about his plans for the band and his recovery from lymphoma.

Sure, Railroad qualifies: it’s a historical novel, but it’s also a steampunk fantasy. The nominee authors are an unusually diverse lot: in addition to Whitehead (an African-American male), there are three (white) females, an Israeli male, and a transgender Korean-American.

“Whether contemplating the pros and cons of climate change; the role of evolution; the risks versus benefits of vaccines, cancer screening, proper nutrition, genetic engineering; trickle-down versus bottom-up economic policies; or how to improve local traffic, we must be comfortable with a variety of statistical and scientific methodologies, complex risk-reward and probability calculations – not to mention an intuitive grasp of the difference between fact, theory and opinion. Even moral decisions, such as whether or not to sacrifice one life to save five (as in the classic trolley-car experiment), boil down to often opaque calculations of the relative value of the individual versus the group. If we are not up to the cognitive task, how might we be expected to respond?”

“You don’t need a printing press to be a journalist anymore. You don’t need a museum to be an artist. Web platforms have made it so anyone can distribute anything online. They’ve also shortened the distance between making something and remixing it; between distorting other people’s original work and just copying it outright. The same tools that enable artists to share their work widely makes it easier for those same artists to get ripped off by outsiders who sometimes profit from this kind of theft. But money isn’t the only thing separating collaboration from co-option.”

The report, published following the inquiry into Skills in the Theatre Industry, revealed that the number of performers, directors and writers from more affluent background and the underrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic theatre workers continues to be a major concern for the industry.

“The four artists range in age from 43 to 62 and include two painters, after a decision was taken to drop the upper age limit of 50.” Three of the four are women, and only one is of all-European ancestry.

Rob Clearfield, Wherever You’re Starting From (Woolgathering Records) The Chicago pianist’s low-key approach to solo piano might lead to wool-gathering that would justify the name of his label. But he bolsters the ... read more

One dating app I’ve used is called SilverDaddies, and my straight friends usually belch a laugh when they hear the name. “What’s funny?” I ask, and they never have an answer. Silver threads ... read more

NEW YORK – High Noon is a great movie, but does it immediately jump to mind as a story that’s ripe for re-evaluation and revision? The 1952 original was a superior western thanks to its strong ... read more

My staff of thousands informs me that the Smithsonian Institute has posted scans of three notebooks by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin dating from 1963 to 1973, and 1977. It was described to me ... read more

It’s common modern practice to consider art and commerce in opposition to each other, and artists and accountants as cartoonish polar opposites, as well. But it wasn’t always so. About 520 years ago, art and ... read more

Fredric March appears as the mystery guest on an episode of What’s My Line? originally telecast live by CBS on March 21, 1954. John Daly is the host and the panelists are Margaret Truman, Steve ... read more

“His imagination projected itself lovingly across the footlights, gilded and coloured the shabby canvas and battered accessories, and lost itself so effectually in the fictive world that the end of the piece, however long, or ... read more

This is the last of a series, introduced in Baby Steps, about arts organizations’ initial efforts in community engagement. For details about the premises upon which these posts are based, see below. The essence is ... read more

In pithy new blurbs, the National Portrait Gallery’s revamped and reinterpreted “America’s Presidents” installation strives to tell each former officeholder’s “unique stories of both triumph and failure” (in the words of the introductory wall text). ... read more

Charles Plymell writes: I sent Robert some old political cartoons on crumbling paper from 20’s-30’s & some extra sheets of the plain parchment which had beautiful tan sheen like I ran the first ZAP on. ... read more

From 2008: I never saw Paul Scofield on stage. Few Americans did: he performed in this country only once, in the 1961 Broadway production of Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons. So his death ... read more

“It occurs to me that writers don’t change much from the time they are thirty or thereabouts until they are laid away—permanently, I trust. As they grow older, they are apt to perform at somewhat ... read more

We had the Attacca String Quartet in residence here this past week. Started things off with a 2-hour seminar on composer-performer collaborations, featuring performances of three Caroline Shaw quartets: Entr’acte, Valencia and Blueprint. That evening, ... read more

Yesterday I spent eight long but gratifying hours at Houston’s Alley Theatre, rehearsing for the Texas premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf. Then I drove straight from the theater to the home of Lauren and ... read more

Yesterday I spent eight long but gratifying hours at Houston’s Alley Theatre, rehearsing for the Texas premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf. Then I drove straight from the theater to the home of Lauren and ... read more

“I would have practiced the piano and realized that playing the piano is not something you just do to the best of your abilities. Playing the piano is something where you have to pursue your ... read more